Oy, what a week. Can February be a little less ridiculous, please? I hope so, anyway. An extraordinarily busy week ended it all, complicated by the cold.
How did it go? The Henry Ford story went viral and provoked a boneheaded response by the city administration, which culminated in a story in the New York Times, but they included a link back to Deadline Detroit, so hey — win-win.
A former owner of one of Detroit’s two most-beloved coney islands died, so that was a quick-turn obit. Then the deep, deep cold settled in for a two-day stay, and my friend Dustin got CO poisoning from the furnace in his apartment. So we had an emergency houseguest Thursday night. (That’s why no blog Friday.) And on Friday night I helped host a fundraiser with about 200 people, for a 501(c)3 I’m involved with. It was a big success, but with this cold — my cold, not the free-floating cold, although it was pretty nippy that night, too — still hanging around, I was croaking like …something that croaks by Saturday morning, which required a bloody-mary debrief on how the night went.
We stayed in Saturday night. For which I am grateful.
The fundraiser was at a local yacht club. Here’s the last picture I took from the back deck before the guests arrived. You get a sense of the temperature, I expect:
But now it is Sunday, and a relatively normal week lies ahead, which will end with a long-weekend getaway for the Derringers, sorely needed. I hope the news behaves itself.
Random notes: Watched “BlackkKlansman” Saturday night, and hated it. Hated hated HATED it. It was vintage Spike Lee: Heavy-handed, too long, scenes that go on and on and on, the whole nine. Did it have its pleasures? Sure: Denzel’s son John David Washington is fine, and Adam Driver is always worth your time. One of the too-long scenes was a dance montage to Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose’s “Too Late to Turn Back Now,” so at least the music was good. But by the time the fourth or fifth white racist said something like, “One of these days we’ll elect a president who thinks like we do” or “America needs to be great again,” I’d had enough. I turned it off with 15 minutes left. It still took two hours of my life I’ll never get back.
I can’t tell whether Spike Lee beats his audience with a Message Stick because he doesn’t trust us to get it, or if he just hates us. I’m going with the latter.
Is there a surge in human trafficking at the Super Bowl, as we hear over and over and over at this time of year? In a word? No.
As for Ralph Northam, I have nothing to say. I checked Twitter during a bathroom break Friday night, when the story was breaking, and thought: I have no more room in my brain, sorry. But for now? I’ll just say that Pam Northam now joins the unhappy ranks of Wives Who Stand in the Background While Their Husbands Self-Immolate.
Also, medical schools have yearbooks? Why?
OK, then. The week awaits, but before that, the Super Bowl. Go Rams.
Julie Robinson said on February 3, 2019 at 6:19 pm
Too bad about the movie; the book was a stunner, and I looked forward to seeing it.
As to the rest of the world, what care I, for I am in Orlando and am about to eat a huge salad that we just picked from the front yard, and no one will put on any silly games with balls.
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Deborah said on February 3, 2019 at 6:35 pm
Not watching the Super Bowl here either, I was astonished when I asked yesterday, that my husband knew who was even playing. He has a bit of a history with the Rams because he designed the stadium where they played in St. Louis, but they’re not in St. Louis anymore obviously.
What is CO poisoning
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susan said on February 3, 2019 at 6:48 pm
carbon monoxide poisoning. From a poorly-vented gas furnace, presumably.
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Suzanne said on February 3, 2019 at 6:49 pm
I never bought a yearbook in college. Maybe I need to go find one at a library or something and make sure nobody slipped a pic of me in a compromising position into one.
It is painful to watch Mr Northum’s excuses but the whole thing seems off. How did no one find this earlier? How odd it comes to light days after a late term abortion law was signed in VA. I am not denying that the pic is real, but something just seems off.
Nonetheless, when your alibi is that you don’t remember this blackface incident but you sure do remember that other time, I think the narrative has gotten away from you.
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nancy said on February 3, 2019 at 7:06 pm
Yes, carbon monoxide. We sent him home with an extra CO monitor we happened to have.
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alex said on February 3, 2019 at 7:34 pm
I’ll admit to having it on as background noise, mostly just to see ads if I’m so inclined, though so far I’ve only bothered to watch one in which Bud Lite makes a big to-do about its nearest competitors using corn syrup in their product. I don’t drink any of that glorified piss water anyway so I don’t care what they put in it, or don’t.
I’m waiting to see what else happens in the Northam fiasco before I rush to judgment. His statements about the abortion law were taken wildly out of context to mean that he condones infanticide, which had both the left and right in hysterics this week even before the right-wingers dredged up this supposed photo and handed it off to a right-leaning agitprop factory, so I suspect we haven’t heard the whole story yet.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 3, 2019 at 7:57 pm
Dilly dilly.
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Deborah said on February 3, 2019 at 8:31 pm
What happens to someone with CO poisoning? I mean obviously eventually death, but what happens in the meantime? How do you know when it’s happening? What are the symptoms.
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Jakash said on February 3, 2019 at 8:32 pm
Well, I thought BkkK was a bit over-the-top, but I didn’t hate it like you did, by any means. And I will politely disagree about Mr. Lee using the “Message Stick.” Sure, *you* get it. I get it. Most all the nn.cers get it. But if the past 2 years haven’t demonstrated that at least 40% of America *doesn’t* get it, what will? Not that they’ll be watching a Spike Lee Joint, regardless, but…
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alex said on February 3, 2019 at 8:50 pm
I had CO poisoning as a small child. It causes loss of consciousness and loss of control of bodily functions, and if those don’t tip someone off that there’s something wrong, it causes death.
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Deggjr said on February 3, 2019 at 9:19 pm
I thought the VA abortion law was not passed.
No matter, the discussion surely set off a right wing frenzy. I have a few FB friends who now post on abortion every day as if there is anyone over age 16 who has not made up their mind on abortion.
Between Kavanaugh and now Northam, yearbooks will be standard opposition research going forward.
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nancy said on February 3, 2019 at 9:28 pm
Deborah, he woke up at 2 am, nauseous and dizzy, with a headache. All classic symptoms. He roused his elderly neighbor and drove them both to a Holiday Inn for the night. (We hosted him the second night.) His father went over to check things out the next day, and said he developed symptoms in 20 minutes.
Children are at special risk, because they breathe more often. It’s scary; people die of carbon monoxide fairly often in winter, usually from furnaces or improperly vented space heaters.
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Hank Stuever said on February 3, 2019 at 9:43 pm
Suzanne, to answer your question (How did no one find Ralph Northam’s blackface picture in the yearbook until now), I can tell you that most of the (very, very good) reporters in my Twitter feed have pretty much agreed that — as Nancy points out — it would never occur to them to go looking for a MEDICAL SCHOOL yearbook. Because who would imagine there being such a thing, a whole separate publication?
High school and college yearbooks, you bet. It’s standard. Apparently, it also never occurred to whoever was hired to do the oppo research for Northam’s opponent.
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Joe Kobiela said on February 3, 2019 at 10:00 pm
Julie@1,
Airlined in to mco tonight about 6, Kissimmee to Sarasota then down to key west Monday morning, feels nice down here.
Pilot Joe
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basset said on February 3, 2019 at 10:02 pm
How do medical students have time to act up, anyway?
Football is playing in the other room, Mrs. B says she wants to see the commercials. I don’t care, not even a little.
Went “magnet fishing” for the first time today – you tie a strong magnet to a rope and throw it off a dock, a bridge, whatever. Only found trash, but hope springs eternal.
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beb said on February 3, 2019 at 10:31 pm
Magnet fishing? What were expecting to attract? Fish aren’t magnet. Gold isn’t magnetic, silver isn’t magnetic? The only thing magnetic down there would a 60s Chrysler.
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basset said on February 3, 2019 at 10:35 pm
I need more bottle tops and used fishhooks.
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susan said on February 3, 2019 at 10:45 pm
Ha ha ha! You two crack me up.
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Dexter Friend said on February 4, 2019 at 1:19 am
As a former sports reporter for my old hometown weekly, The Waterloo Press, back when I was a high school kid ($10 per story I turned in) , I’ll fill you in on the events: Maroon Five killed, Big Boi did his thing but he raps in the style in which it’s all noise, unintelligible grunts. The game…it sucked. I nodded off twice in the first half after I finished my repast of two styles of chicken wings and cheddar-bacon flavored cold macaroni salad. I never made it to the Doritos and cheese dip. Then, the aforementioned halftime show, more grind-it-out and go nowhere offense from both sides…the punters were the only players doing anything to make the football move, sheesh. In the end, a Brady pass to Gronkowski and a short touchdown run by Sony Michel, so named because I reckon his parents hated Samsung. You folks picked a good game to avoid…it sucked. But then the Maroon Five thing, that was A-1 fine entertainment. Oh…Gladys Knight sang the anthem and killed…she is 74 years old and she is beautiful. She caught hell from the support Kaepernick gangs but she told the media she respects the protestors and all that jazz, but she was gonna sing the anthem anyway so they can, presumably, fuck off. ( My $10, send cash bills, no change, no stamps.) Haha. 🙂
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ROGirl said on February 4, 2019 at 5:01 am
I grew up with a Keros family in my neighborhood. They must have been from the other branch. I believe they split and opened a rival Coney next door to the original.
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Heather said on February 4, 2019 at 8:31 am
Dexter, my Twitter feed begs to disagree with you about Maroon 5. Strongly.
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Nancy F said on February 4, 2019 at 9:17 am
And here I thought I was the only one who hated, hated, hated BlacKkKlansman (starting with the ridiculous capitalization of the title). The ad-nauseam repetition of the N-word, just to make sure we get the “these guys were racist” message. The WTF Alex Baldwin prologue, or whatever it was. The shallow character development. The sledgehammer epilogue — documentary footage of Charlottesville, 2017. (That’s what you missed by skipping the last 15 minutes, which is to say: you’d already seen it.)
On the bright side, I snagged a Goldstar ticket and saw “Come from Away,” the Tony-award-winning musical now on national tour, at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco. It was so terrific I paid full price to see it a second time. If it comes your way, do not miss it.
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nancy said on February 4, 2019 at 10:38 am
Oh, yes, all of that, too. My patience snapped during the (again, overlong) scene of the KKK initiation, intercut with Harry Belafonte telling the story of a lynching. The former event is happening in a hotel ballroom, with full robes and all**, and there’s a line of waiters in the back, white, black and brown. He pans down the line of their faces — the black men are angry, the brown men stone-faced and two white women are beaming and nodding along. I’m like, fuck you, asshole.
Do you remember, years ago, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison wrote a profile of Lee for Esquire or GQ or one of those, and the headline was “Spike Lee hates your cracker ass”? He was incandescent with anger over that, but I’d say she (or whoever wrote the headline) got that one right on the nose.
** This event is going on in, yes, a semi-public space, even though earlier in the film they didn’t even say “Klan” to one another, but insisted everyone call it “the organization.” Also, we’re asked to believe that David Duke flew across the country to behold the swearing-in of a single KKK member. OK, whatever.
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Bitter Scribe said on February 4, 2019 at 10:42 am
FWIW, although I liked (not loved) “BlacKkKlansman,” I share Nancy’s opinion as it applies to Spike Lee’s work in general. Of the Lee movies I’ve seen, “Mo’ Better Blues” is the only other one I’d look at twice.
Regarding Bud Light, I was surprised to see they made a big deal out of not using corn syrup but acknowledged they use rice, which DOES NOT belong in beer. Real beer uses barley malt as the only carb, and the only other ingredients should be yeast, hops and water. In fact, Germany has (or had) a law mandating that no other ingredients but those four could be used in anything that calls itself “beer.”
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basset said on February 4, 2019 at 10:46 am
Reheinsgebot, if I’m spelling it right.
Oh, OK, I’ll go look it up…
Well, I was close: https://www.reinheitsgebot.de/en/home/the-reinheitsgebot/
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Deborah said on February 4, 2019 at 11:17 am
A lot of beers have things like coffee, chocolate, grapefruit, raspberry etc in them. I’ve had one with grapefruit in it in Santa Fe, I like it, If I remember correctly it’s a local brew. There’s another one that has something to do with scotch, it’s called Scotia, has a really high alcohol content and it’s delicious, also a local NM brew (I think).
Edit: Ok maybe it doesn’t have scotch in it, but a scot style ale https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30492/89999/
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Bitter Scribe said on February 4, 2019 at 11:24 am
Deborah: That’s why I stopped drinking Leinenkugel’s. It’s great beer in its unadulterated form—which I can no longer find at my local stores. All the versions of Leinie’s on sale near me have berries, vanilla, grapefruit, etc. Bleh. It’s beer, not ice cream.
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Mark P said on February 4, 2019 at 11:27 am
Whoa! Nice picture! You need to see it on a big screen, not your phone.
Nancy, your friend is very lucky. Not waking up is apparently the most common outcome.
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basset said on February 4, 2019 at 12:12 pm
Don’t care for flavored beers or liquors myself.
Then again, there’s this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_ale
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Jakash said on February 4, 2019 at 1:11 pm
There are a number of blind tastings out there that demonstrate that Miller Lite is actually a pretty good-tasting beer, for a macro-brew (beer made by a big company in big batches), at any rate. Bud Light is swill, and most discerning beer drinkers know it. It’s a marvel of modern advertising and the lack of discrimination of the American public (uh, that’s an ironic double entendre there, one might say) that it is by far the best-selling beer. A couple years ago, more Bud Light was sold than all craft beers, combined.
Thumbs up to original Leinie’s, Bitter Scribe. You can probably still get it at Binny’s. Our local Jewel has it sometimes. Summer Shandy is acceptable to me only if I just finished mowing the lawn, it’s 90 degrees out and I’d just as soon have a lemonade as a beer, anyway. But that’s their flagship now — I think they sell more of it than all their other brews put together.
As for AB/Inbev (owner of Bud) deciding to spend millions to start a race-to-the-bottom war against its two biggest “light” competitors, it seems pretty dumb to me, but they must have focus groups telling them that demonizing corn syrup is a winner. a.) Though Bud Light evidently doesn’t have it, they brew several other beers that use High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is worse, and not what is used in Miller Lite. b.) There’s already a backlash from corn farmers! c.) Bud Light uses rice syrup for the purpose that Miller and Coors use corn syrup. Does anybody buying these brands give a crap about that? d.) Miller Lite has less calories and carbs, for whatever that’s worth.
Apologies to any Bud Light fans. I don’t drink any of them, and never have. There is more great beer being produced in America, and the world, than there ever has been — not going to waste calories on those.
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Dorothy said on February 4, 2019 at 2:07 pm
I looked up at the t.v. only during the commercials because I was knitting a penguin hat for my granddaughter that required paying attention to a chart to get the colors right. We stopped ‘watching’ at half time because nothing was really very interesting, but I confess that we taped the entire game. I fast forwarded thru some this morning and we loved the NFL commercial with the players all messing around in a ballroom with a big fancy cake and the players were all in tuxedos. Very funny. Nice to see Mean Joe Greene, Franco Harris and Terry Bradshaw in it.
Nancy @ 22 – Come From Away was one of the shows we saw in NYC in December. It was just tremendous! I’d pay full price to see it again and listen more closely to all the lyrics. It was very entertaining.
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Dorothy said on February 4, 2019 at 2:23 pm
I know I just posted but I feel strongly that I need to share this. I’m the Dorothy Downer who pointed out (last week?) that I’d been thinking a lot about death and early dying, etc. Something like that. Anyway, I just read this in the NY Times and it’s very good. A nice reminder that sometimes we should think about what expressing our sympathetic thoughts would mean to someone who is in mourning. We all spend a lot of time writing out our thoughts here and that can be very cleansing and freeing. We should try to do that for someone when they lose a loved one, too.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/opinion/death-grief-condolences.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
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Jakash said on February 4, 2019 at 3:43 pm
“the headline was ‘Spike Lee hates your cracker ass'”
Why would he ever feel that way? Not too hard for me to imagine why. Anyway, Liam Neeson: “Hold my beer.”
“‘I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.
‘I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody – I’m ashamed to say that – and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] “black bastard” would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could,’ another pause, ‘kill him.’
Neeson clearly knows what he’s saying, and how shocking it is, how appalling. ‘It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that. She would say, ‘Where are you going?’ and I would say, ‘I’m just going out for a walk.’ You know? ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘No no, nothing’s wrong.'”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/liam-neeson-interview-rape-race-black-man-revenge-taken-cold-pursuit-a8760896.html
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Deborah said on February 4, 2019 at 3:52 pm
Speaking of death, LB’s friend’s funeral is this Sunday in St.Louis, LB will be taking the train there from Santa Fe. She hates to fly and it simplifies getting to and from airports. She will spend the weekend there with friends. I looked into taking the train from Chicago to be at the funeral too but the timing is too crazy and I’m loathe to get on another airplane. As it is I’m flying from Chicago for NM on the 28th.
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Deborah said on February 4, 2019 at 4:00 pm
I meant to say, Dorothy, after reading that link, I’m going to write a note to LB’s friend’s mother about how important her daughter was to my daughter. I can’t imagine what she is going through right now. I didn’t know the mother well, I know she’s not in good health herself. But anyway, thanks for the link Dorothy.
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Sherri said on February 4, 2019 at 4:05 pm
All you midwesterners can laugh now, as the Seattle area has come to a complete halt with around five inches of snow. Of course, it doesn’t make sense to have the equipment to deal with snow when we don’t get it often, and even what we do plow, we don’t plow all the way to bare roads. Doing so would remove all the raised reflectorised lane markers, which are much more useful in our typical gloomy rain.
We also don’t salt, to protect Puget Sound. And it’s quite hilly, and most people don’t have experience driving in the snow, so shutting down makes sense. I still went to the gym, though.
I think this may be the latest in winter for a first snow since we’ve lived here.
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Suzanne said on February 4, 2019 at 4:19 pm
Dorothy, thank you for sharing that article. It’s a good reminder for all of us to be aware of our interactions with the grieving but that they are necessary and helpful.
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Dexter Friend said on February 4, 2019 at 5:41 pm
I guess everyone in the world except me hated Maroon 5. I heard about the twitter explosion. Like I wrote above, I watch those two music channels on cable that show those huge concerts in Europe, and music similar to Maroon 5 is basically all that the thousands of kids go ape over. I can’t even name the groups, but that’s the style, so if every American hates ‘new’ music (and Maroon 5 have been around for a long time even) , and Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen got battered for being dinosaurs, then there is no ground to stand on, and I say just eliminate the fucking halftime show altogether, cut the halftime back to the regular season time, and forget it. I got goddam sick, anyway, of the bickering this year, which resulted in the last-minute invitation to Maroon 5. Who are the prudes who were complaining about Adam Levine’s bare naked chest and his tattoos? They should have just watched their fucking Fox News or whatever.
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Heather said on February 4, 2019 at 6:07 pm
It sounded like people were more grossed out by Adam Levine than shocked because of prudishness. And not a few pointed out that Janet Jackson’s career took a dive when her boob was shown for like a second (and with a patch actually covering the nipple). But we’re A-OK with male full-frontal.
https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/after-that-super-bowl-halftime-show-its-safe-to-say-bl-1832323427
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Julie Robinson said on February 4, 2019 at 6:11 pm
It’s fine if you liked it, Dexter. We have room in this world for a wide variety of musical styles. Personally, I’d love to see marching bands at halftime. I’d tune in for that.
Something I’ve learned about condolences is that it’s never too late to send them. At least for me, I appreciated receiving them even a year after my loved one died. And when I don’t know the person, as in a friend’s parent who lived elsewhere, I look for qualities that I know the parent has nurtured, and trace them back. It’s just really important to acknowledge their mourning and to say you care.
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LAMary said on February 4, 2019 at 6:40 pm
Off topic. My son just started a job in a sketchy neighborhood sort of on the border between Little Tokyo and Skid Row. We are having major rainstorms here, like four inches of rain in three days, and my son told me he saw the street in front of his workplace flooded like a stream with lots of hypodermic caps floating in it.
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Dexter Friend said on February 4, 2019 at 6:53 pm
LA Mary, that darn LA River is a marvel. Dry as a bone most of the time, get an inch or so of rain and it does what it was designed for, then all the news outlets converge , showing the torrent, and a few folks drown, and it’s a disaster. I live way back east in Ohio and every newscast features a segment of the Los Angeles River. Of course we were provided footage of the streets-turned-to rivers as well. Also, Santa Barbara and the surrounds with the raging waters and more and more mudslides. Any breaking news on the PG &E lawsuits originating in Paradise?
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Joe Kobiela said on February 4, 2019 at 7:08 pm
Greetings from key west, just walked Duval street nothing like this in little old Auburn.
Pilot Joe
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Sherri said on February 4, 2019 at 7:31 pm
I wouldn’t call it bickering, but a lot of musicians turned the NFL down this year because the NFL has blackballed Kaepernick. Maroon 5 said yes. And it’s not just that Janet Jackson’s career took a nosedive after her wardrobe malfunction, it’s that CBS exec Les Moonves deliberately orchestrated her career nosedive. The same Les Moonves who was recently, finally ousted after years of sexual bad behavior.
I didn’t watch any of the game, for the first time in I can’t remember how long. Probably ever. Just didn’t care. Had the game been Chiefs/Saints, I would have watched, but I’m not putting myself through Jim Nantz torture to watch a Belichekian dystopia.
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Jill B. said on February 4, 2019 at 9:34 pm
Off topic: Alex, thank you for the Hungarian goulash recipe a couple weeks ago. I made it and loved it, as did the others to whom I served it. Perfect cold weather dish.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 4, 2019 at 11:28 pm
Julie — ditto on the marching bands!
#Marching110
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LAMary said on February 5, 2019 at 12:36 am
I think it was determined it wasn’t PG and E’s fault that Paradise burned down.
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David C. said on February 5, 2019 at 6:03 am
The kids are alright.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/3/1775116/-In-Flight-15-Year-Old-Leads-A-Planeful-Of-Strangers-Rallying-To-Assist-A-Blind-And-Deaf-Passenger?utm_campaign=trending
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Connie said on February 5, 2019 at 10:40 am
Sherri, most of the salt we use in the frozen midwest is actually calcium chloride which is much more environmentally friendly than salt. And much kinder to your concrete as well. Looks like we are getting another big freeze with ice and snow tomorrow.
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Deborah said on February 5, 2019 at 11:07 am
In NM they use something on icy and snowy roads they call cinders. I have no idea what it’s made of, it’s a rusty brown color and has lots of gravel (?) in it, which often kicks up and causes pits and cracks in windshields. I think they use this in Colorado too? Maybe it’s meant for places with lots of topography. On Santa Fe streets it often takes on a purplish color after it’s been on the streets for a while, again I have no idea what’s in it.
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Connie said on February 5, 2019 at 12:12 pm
I lived in southern Indiana where the local communities are not well equipped to handle snow. It is not unusual for communities to dump cinders in the intersections to help with traction. It doesn’t much help with traction though if it is still there when you are riding your bike come Spring.
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Connie said on February 5, 2019 at 1:02 pm
I thought cinders were the leftovers after you burn coal.
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alex said on February 5, 2019 at 1:31 pm
Jill at 44 —
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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Deborah said on February 5, 2019 at 3:23 pm
Wow David C, thanks for the Farm to Taber link. As Sherri said it is terrific. I’ve been working on a project that has been occupying my hands for the last few days so I’ve been listening as I work. Dr. Taber is extremely knowledgeable about so many things you wouldn’t think would be connected to farming, it’s fascinating.
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beb said on February 5, 2019 at 3:40 pm
Heather @38 — what Sherri said @43.
So the company using rice in their beer complained about the companies using corn? I guess they don’t look at themselves in the mirror too often.
The Gov. Northam things has me of two minds. One is that is was a Republican effort to legitimatize an open election and they should succeed in trying to thwart the will of the people. On the other hand it hard to imagine that a 25 year old man in 1985 would think it was OK to go around in either blackface or in Klan regalia. Then again I’ve done and said a lot of stupid things all through my life. I didn’t think they were stupid unless after I’d said them and realized how badly they sounded out loud. So the bigger question for me is what has Northam being doing in the past 35 years. Has he continued to be racially insensitive or has he learned better. I think people should be judged on their current then what they did a generation ago. (Kavanaugh behavior during the confirmation hearing was disqualifying in itself)
Connie @51 — that was my understand, too. Cinders was the ash from burning coal. It’s embedded in fairy tales like Cinder-Ella. And I remember my dad going to the local power plant to get a yard or two if cinders to spread over the driveway (this was back in the 50’s) to turn it from dirt to something more stable. I can’t imagine using it to add grit to icy roads.
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Dexter Friend said on February 5, 2019 at 6:37 pm
My first driving winter was 1967-1968. Many folks carried a bucket of cinders, from coal-burning stand-alone stoves in their homes, in their cars and trucks for when your car got stuck on ice and/or snow. I hauled my grandmother’s stove ashes out to the curb for weekly pickup, and always took a coffee can back to my car, full of ashes for the ice. It worked. These brine trucks are new around here, as before salt was spread, now it is brine striping before the sky opens. I never noted the evolution of tires, or tyres as Jerry spells them 🙂 but it seems todays tires get much better traction.
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Sherri said on February 5, 2019 at 6:57 pm
I don’t care whether it was a Republican who exposed Northam’s blackface past. What I care about is how he reacted to it, which was terribly. It was me, it wasn’t me, but I did wear blackface this other time, and I won! Because I moonwalked!
What he didn’t show was any understanding of the harm and pain he caused, either back then or now. I don’t believe that mistakes made 35 years ago have to define who you are, but if you don’t acknowledge the mistake and work to make amends, then don’t expect to get my support to remain in power when someone else exposes your bad behavior.
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basset said on February 5, 2019 at 9:24 pm
Dorothy@31, we’ve touched on that topic recently as well. Mrs. B and I are looking for our retirement home and discussed yesterday how we’re probably gonna die there… gotta be positive, y’know?
That’s if we ever get another house – were gonna look at one with our our realtor this morning but he said it was already sold, multiple offers in the first couple of days listed and it went for over asking price. This is a good forty miles out from the Nashville city center, I knew it was a tough housing market close in but come on. We may just build a cabin on the family land in northern Michigan and drive into town for broadband.
Not watching SOTU, trying to get a printer working on a Chromebook earlier tonight has used up my patience for the evening. Looks easy till the error messages start showing up.
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Deni Menken said on February 5, 2019 at 9:48 pm
Intimately acquainted with cinders. Had a bicycle spill in the alley by my house as a third grader and had to have black cinders scrubbed out of my knees and elbows. My mom was embarrassed by my less than stoic behavior at the doctor’s office. I wore gauze patches the size of bandannas for a couple of weeks. Still have dark remnants in my old knees.
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basset said on February 5, 2019 at 9:59 pm
When I started at IU Bloomington in 1973 the HPER building still had an indoor cinder track. Playing basketball on the courts inside it was a challenge, sliding around on the dust.
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Deborah said on February 5, 2019 at 11:19 pm
Well against my will I watched some of the SOTU. We’re at uncle J’s house, usually we come on Weds but the combo of bad weather and colds we didn’t come last week so we felt guilty and decided to come an extra day earlier this week. Unfortunately I think trump’s poll numbers will rise after his speech. He said some incendiary things about investigations etc but he said the things his base wanted to hear. Of course lots of lies and misleading statements but what else did we expect. I thought Stacy Abrams did a good job, she looked composed and comfortable to me, I didn’t watch Bernie if that even happened.
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Dexter Friend said on February 6, 2019 at 1:03 am
I was late to the SOTU but I watched all but the first 30 minutes. After, Nicole Wallace, now with msnbc and with quite a resume, including speech writing, nailed it when she said Trump will be up all night tweeting how everyone loved his speech, and loved HIM …when , of course, he walked past only the repuggs as he exited for home.
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Connie said on February 6, 2019 at 6:05 am
Basset we are also considering a retirement home on family land up north. And I am thinking we would be sort of neighbors. Would you also be in Wexford county?
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basset said on February 6, 2019 at 9:53 am
Mrs. B’s dad lives at Caberfae west of Cadillac… and we’ve talked about that pizza and softball field place on 55 at 115… but the farm is near Woodville in Newaygo County.
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Connie said on February 6, 2019 at 11:56 am
Bassett, cousins sold the pizza place two years ago. I knew you visit Cadillac regularly, but Newaygo is cool. I could introduce you to a high school friend who is a realtor there!
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Jakash said on February 6, 2019 at 12:47 pm
Neil Steinberg, who is “hoping to become the horseshoe crab of Chicago media,” with some interesting thoughts about the similarities between what’s happening with today’s print and electronic media and what happened at the dawn of printing. He starts right out with the fact that Gutenberg went bankrupt in less than a year…
https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/steinberg-gutenberg-buzzfeed-aol-vice-media-layoffs-internet-printing-press-books/
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Jakash said on February 6, 2019 at 1:55 pm
I didn’t watch the speech, and I’m sure anybody who cares has seen all the memes today. But I’m gonna throw a couple tweets in here, anyway.
Trump: “…we also have more women serving in Congress than at any time before.”
OhNoSheTwitnt: “Trump taking credit for having more women in Congress is like the NRA taking credit for more doctors having jobs.”
https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/1093111827096051712
Pelosi mocking Trump while ostensibly applauding him, a moment suitable for framing:
https://twitter.com/MaryinAnnArbor/status/1093004228426117120
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Sherri said on February 6, 2019 at 3:48 pm
The Virginia AG did a much better job responding to his own blackface history: https://twitter.com/MarkHerringVA/status/1093187229533519872
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Sherri said on February 6, 2019 at 6:17 pm
The latest episode of Farm to Taber is great, and deals with a topic I find fascinating, how to process sewage. Listening to Sarah Taber has revealed how all sorts of things we do today have been driven by European cultural practices and colonialism, whether they made sense here or were even a good idea.
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Sherri said on February 6, 2019 at 6:29 pm
Forecasts are showing three more “disruptive” snow storms queued up over the next ten days, starting Friday. Fun!
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